Tuesday, December 23, 2008

FACTS AND FIGURES Illegal US Detentions

- 11 January 2009 marks 7 years since the first detainees were transferred to Guantánamo.

- Nearly 800 detainees have been held in Guantánamo, the vast majority without charge or trial.

- Approximately 250 detainees were still held in December 2008. Nearly 100 of them were Yemenis.

- As of December 2008, 26 Guantánamo detainees had been charged for trial by military commission; 3 had been convicted and sentenced; charges against 6 had been dismissed (although they could be re-charged); 6 were facing the death penalty

- A majority of those detained are believed to be held in isolation in Camp 5, Camp 6 or Camp 7.

- Camp 6 was built to house 178 detainees. Detainees are confined for a minimum of 22 hours a day in individual steel cells with no windows to the outside.

- At least 12 of those held at Guantánamo were under 18 years old when taken into custody. At least three were still there in December 2008

- At least 4 men are reported to have died in Guantánamo as a result of suicide. Dozens more suicide attempts have been reported.

- Detainees have been taken into custody in more than 10 countries before being transferred to Guantánamo without any judicial process.

- An analysis of around 500 of the detainees concluded that only 5 per cent had been captured by US forces; 86 per cent had been arrested by Pakistani or Afghanistan-based Northern Alliance forces and turned over to US custody, often for a reward of thousands of US dollars.

- 14 detainees were transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006 after they had been held incommunicado in secret CIA custody for up to 4 and a half years; 5 other men have been transferred to Guantánamo since, at least two of them from secret CIA custody.

- An unknown number of people have been held in secret CIA custody. At least three dozen people believed to have been held in secret remain unaccounted for, their fate and whereabouts unknown.

- Hundreds of people remain detained without charge, trial or judicial review of their detentions at the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan.